College Curriculum
Gone Bad
By Ambra Nykol

In what appears to be the relentlessly fraudulent pursuit of relevancy and the quest to become "cutting edge," many of our institutions of higher learning have abandoned the curriculum of yore and burdened themselves with the rebellious idea that anything can be turned into a learning experience.

Exhibit A: Wesleyan University
The known haven of extreme liberalism and recklessness called Wesleyan University, in Connecticut, opened up the gates of Hades back in 1999 when their coursebook included a class simply and bluntly called "Pornography." Because according to some, even the most mindless of matters can be educational. This particular class sought to make some investigative headway into the industry, its literature, and its culture.

Although the subject matter itself being blatantly discussed in an institution of higher learning is a bit shocking, it probably comes as no surprise that the class was a hit among hapless 20-year-olds who forked up $36,000 a year in tuition to be enlightened on the educational value of pornography - or to have yet another excuse to jack off. In regards to the latter, picking up a video rental membership would've probably spared them a buck or two.

Wesleyan's prime offering - which caused a bit of outrage among the more prudish endowment-funding alumni - included elements of video, fiction, and photography. And like all things academic, there were even guest lecturers: porn stars. A Hartford Courant article on the class reported:

"Porn stars now work the college lecture circuit. Performance artist Annie Sprinkle, who packed a Wesleyan auditorium Sunday, extolled the value of prostitution and told students, 'The answer to bad porn is not no porn, but to try to make better porn.'"

With such repugnant refuse being peddled as "intelligent," it's amazing that researchers still find themselves lost in the question of why our college degrees are failing us. The answer is simple really: because some of our universities are teaching garbage, that's why.

The culmination of the porno course was a final assignment wherein students were instructed by Professor Hope Weissman to "Just create your own pornography." Wesleyan would've been better off just calling the class "Hedonism 101." At least then they'd be honest.

And as the grammatically challenged ones say, "it gets worser and worser."

Exhibit B: Syracuse University
Recently, Syracuse University has decided to throw its hat in the ring of the battle between reason and stupidity. It's painful to admit, but stupidity just might be winning.

When you consider rapper Lil' Kim, you don't think of the word "class" (in either meaning of the noun). Nevertheless, in what promises to be one of the biggest guffaws of 2004, Syracuse recently introduced a course titled, "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen Bitch 101 - The Life and Times of Lil' Kim." This is true academic learning at its prime, right?

According to instructor Greg Thomas, the course seeks "to look into things that gender studies have been trying to grapple with" and requires students to read Kim's song lyrics as literary texts and analyze her iconography in videos and performances.

Move over Maya Angelou and Gwendolyn Brooks, there's a new poet in town.

Kim has even made a guest appearance to speak to the class about her music. A better working title for this course would be "The New Misogyny: How Women Hate Themselves." Those familiar to Lil' Kim know she is famous among many for her self-deprecating, sex-laced, raunchy and explicit lyrics. Image wise, she is a self-proclaimed female dog and has mastered the art of wearing as few clothes as possible. It should also be noted that Lil' Kim has given Michael Jackson a run for his money in the area of plastic surgery. If getting deep is worth anything in this analysis, it should be observed that all evidence points to the fact that this is clearly a woman who doesn't love herself enough, if at all.

This past June when a high school summer school program in Worcester, Massachusetts unwisely added Tupac Shakur's book of poetry to their required reading list, it didn't go over well. This certainly isn't to say that 'Pac isn't relevant to the culture. Anyone who has so much of a stronghold that nearly a decade later, people are still proclaiming his second coming is worth looking into, but only through the proper lens.

The question here isn't whether or not aspects of Hip Hop culture are worthy of academic dissection. The answer to that question is an emphatic "yes," without reservation. Not only is Hip Hop no less worthy than every other art form, it would be intellectually dishonest to suggest contrarily as historically, every dominant aspect of culture has been well-served by overpaid PhD students in search of a dissertation topic. What is troubling, is which cross sections of hip hop culture "the powers that be" have decided to study.

There are intelligent and conscious lyricists in rap, yet we want to intellectually scrutinize the rubbish and play pseudo-deep like shaking your behind on the television has all that many layers of profundity. It is backwards thinking perpetuated by years' worth of indoctrination. It doesn't need to be studied; it needs to be crushed. There's nothing profound about glorifying gang activity and filthy lifestyles. It doesn't need to be analyzed; it needs to be countered.

For all that has come out of hip hop, surely there is more to offer than someone as grotesque and confused as Lil' Kim? There is a bigger picture at stake here. Can we afford to glorify such behavior as pornography and the prostitution of self in light of an ailing culture? What exactly is the legacy we're trying to leave?

Cultivating critical thinking is great, but not at the cost of passively endorsing detrimental behavior. There needs to be a standard on this thing we call "learning."

Ambra Nykol is freelance writer, Seattle native, and member of the "rebellious" generation. Visit her website at www.nykola.com.

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